Sometimes all you need is to improve your skills to take your career a notch higher. This helps you expand the knowledge horizon in your domain and helps you have an improved approach towards business problems. If you are an analytics professional, then upskilling with Great Lakes BABI (Business Analytics and Business Intelligence) program is your best bet at achieving a successful career and growth in Analytics. Read what Arindam Chatterjee has to say about his experience of the program.
Tell us about your professional journey so far!
My engineering background and work experience with Dell and Deloitte ensured that I was technically sound. I have worked on cloud computing, .Net, databases, business intelligence, etc. At Dell, I was into BI reporting. After studying advanced analytics using R at IIT, Hyderabad; I got into Deloitte’s new data analytics team exploring descriptive analytics and working with predictive models. To get in more comprehensive knowledge, I evaluated several analytics courses but then Great Lakes was not in Hyderabad. The very next year I heard that Great Lakes’ PGP-BABI is being offered in Hyderabad and I enrolled for the course. Now I am in a proper analytics team at Deloitte working on Tax-related stuff.
Why did you choose the PGP – BABI from GL?
I needed to understand the business aspect of a problem. I was doing analytics in bits and pieces. I knew R, SAS, Microsoft tools, etc. given my experience in reporting. But every time I looked at the larger picture, I wanted an end-to-end solution. So, I wanted an integrated course that would help me build my business acumen along with technical skills and PGP-BABI exactly offered that to me. After taking up the course, I gained the confidence to analyze a problem and decide whether I am writing the correct questions and going in the right direction to provide solutions.
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What did you like best about the program?
For me, there were two highlights to the program. The first that I liked is obviously the faculty that comes with years of experience and competencies. There are so many things like statistics, coding etc. where faculty played a major role in making me confident. They helped me understand the analytical concepts really well and resolved any doubts I had. Another highlight was the Capstone project. Mostly, an analyst only gets to work on one part of the problem but during my capstone, I had the experience of working on a problem from start to finish. It helped me develop the capability to start with a problem and arrive at the solution.
What are the tools and techniques that you utilize in your work?
I use Qlikview (for visualization), R, etc. in my current role. I also use a lot of other tools based on the project requirement.
Have your expectations from the program been met?
I come from a development background so coding was not a problem for me. You bring in any language – Python or R, I can handle it very well. My main focus area was Statistics as I didn’t have a statistical background. The course not only changed that but helped me develop an understanding of other domains as well. That really helped me in the long run. At a machine learning session at Deloitte, I had the pleasure of meeting my industry expert and Great Lakes Alumnus Mr Clarence Wong who was there to deliver the session. We spoke at length as he remembered me and I was really happy about our interaction.
What would be your advice to candidates seeking a transition to Analytics?
A good understanding of the concepts and developing comprehensive skills to provide end-to-end solutions is a must. Give yourself at least 6 months to build a strong foundation. Analytics has still not hit maturity with several firms so there are a lot of opportunities that one can capitalize on. There are several internship opportunities, especially in Hyderabad and Bangalore. You can participate in online competitions like those on Kaggle and Analytics Vidhya. Several companies will consider your Kaggle rankings in addition to your LinkedIn profile while hiring you.
